Enthalpic effect of polyacrylonitrile on the concentrated solutions in dimethyl sulfoxide: Strong thixotropic behavior and formation of bound solvents

The effect of dipole–dipole interaction by nitrile groups of PAN on the bound state of solvent molecules and the concentrated solution properties in DMSO was investigated. Variation of a solution viscosity exhibited three overlap concentrations, C1*, C2*, and C3*, at 2.7, 8.6, and 16.3 wt%, respectively, representing the transition of concentration regions in the order of dilute, unentangled‐semi dilute, entangled‐semi dilute, and concentrated regions. The two‐dimensional mapping of FT‐IR analysis and dielectric measurement confirmed that the intermolecular interaction of PAN was suddenly enhanced at the C*s, inducing polarization to DMSO. In the ice‐melting process of PAN solutions, two different melting peaks (T_m2 and T_m3) of DMSO newly appeared at each C2* and C3*, suggesting the different types of bound solvents. In the concentrated solutions, the saturated dielectric constant and the strongly delayed evaporation of the solvent even at the boiling point of DMSO along with strong thixotropic behavior were indicative of the stronger confinement state of bound DMSO than in the semidilute solutions. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 1080–1089     

新郑西亚斯东周玉器材料属性与加工工艺的科技分析

中国玉文化源远流长，治玉工艺经过各个时代的不断发展和完善，在一定程度上能反映古代社会生产力发展水平及文化、贸易、技术交流等信息。利用能量色散型X射线荧光光谱（EDXRF）、激光拉曼光谱（LRS）、超景深光学显微系统（OM）等分析技术，结合硅胶覆膜微痕复制技术，对河南省新郑西亚斯东周墓地出土的一批玉器进行科技分析。首先利用化学成分和物相结构分析技术确定了玉器材质的矿物属性，其次利用显微分析技术表征了玉器表面及穿孔内部和印模的加工痕迹，特别是阴刻纹饰和穿孔微痕特征，最后探讨了玉器样品的材料属性和加工工艺两者之间的联系。化学成分和物相结构分析结果表明，所分析的西亚斯东周玉器材质丰富，主要矿物组成有滑石、透闪石、水晶、云母等。玉器表面纹饰微痕特征分析表明，所分析玉器阴刻工艺采用了两种加工工具，分别是砣具和手持硬质工具。穿孔微痕分析特征表明，钻孔包括单面钻孔和双面/多面钻孔两种方式，钻孔工艺则有实心钻、管钻等。部分玉器钻孔形状和内部微痕特征表明，尽管均采用了实心钻工艺，但所采用的实心钻头在形状上存在差异，同时，也存在是否配合解玉砂进行钻孔的差异。不同材料属性的玉器采用了不同的加工工艺。滑石质玉器，莫氏硬度1，器型主要为玉片饰，其表面阴刻纹饰主要采用手持硬质工具进行刻画，钻孔主要采用了双面钻孔方式，并使用了实心钻头未添加解玉砂进行加工，钻头形状可能为圆锥状；云母质玉器，莫氏硬度2~3，器型主要为玉玦片饰，纹饰采用了砣具添加解玉砂的加工工艺，钻孔方式为单面钻孔，采用了管钻工艺。透闪石型玉器，莫氏硬度5~6，器型主要为玉片饰，表面纹饰采用砣具配合解玉砂砣刻，以双面钻孔的方式为主，钻孔工艺为实心钻头配合解玉砂工艺，钻头形状与滑石类样品一致，为圆锥状。水晶质玉器，莫氏硬度7，均为珠饰，表面无纹饰，钻孔方式为双面/多面钻孔，钻孔工艺为实心钻配合解玉砂工艺，且钻头可能为圆柱形。研究结果表明，玉器表面纹饰所采用的阴刻工艺和钻孔工艺，与玉器本身的材料属性、器型等存在密切关系。     

关于不定方程x3-1=749y2

利用同余式、平方剩余、Pell方程的解的性质、递归序列证明了:不定方程x³-1=749y²仅有整数解(x,y)=(1,0).     

Dynamics of Bacteriorhodopsin in the Dark-Adapted State from Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

To achieve efficient proton pumping in the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (bR), the protein must be tightly coupled to the retinal to rapidly convert retinal isomerization into protein structural rearrangements. Methyl group dynamics of bR embedded in lipid nanodiscs were determined in the dark-adapted state, and were found to be mostly well ordered at the cytosolic side. Methyl groups in the M145A mutant of bR, which displays only 10 % residual proton pumping activity, are less well ordered, suggesting a link between side-chain dynamics on the cytosolic side of the bR cavity and proton pumping activity. In addition, slow conformational exchange, attributed to low frequency motions of aromatic rings, was indirectly observed for residues on the extracellular side of the bR cavity. This may be related to reorganization of the water network. These observations provide a detailed picture of previously undescribed equilibrium dynamics on different time scales for ground-state bR.     

A Far-Red Emitting Fluorescent Chemogenetic Reporter for In Vivo Molecular Imaging

Far-red emitting fluorescent labels are highly desirable for spectral multiplexing and deep tissue imaging. Here, we describe the generation of frFAST (far-red Fluorescence Activating and absorption Shifting Tag), a 14-kDa monomeric protein that forms a bright far-red fluorescent assembly with (4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)allylidene rhodanine (HPAR-3OM). As HPAR-3OM is essentially non-fluorescent in solution and in cells, frFAST can be imaged with high contrast in presence of free HPAR-3OM, which allowed the rapid and efficient imaging of frFAST fusions in live cells, zebrafish embryo/larvae, and chicken embryos. Beyond enabling the genetic encoding of far-red fluorescence, frFAST allowed the design of a far-red chemogenetic reporter of protein–protein interactions, demonstrating its great potential for the design of innovative far-red emitting biosensors.     

Influence of saddle-splay deformation on lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals confined between two coaxial cylinders

ABSTRACT

A striking feature of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals confined in cylinder model exhibit double-twist director configurations. Evidence suggests that saddle-splay deformation is among the most important factors for the distortions of director. Previous researches limit the director to distort at a fixed plane (r-? plane) by using specific boundary conditions such as degenerate planar anchoring condition. In this work, we consider lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals confined between two coaxial cylinders with free-surface boundary conditions and Rapini-Papoular-type anchoring conditions. By using finite-difference iterative method to solve the numerical solution of Euler equation, we find that saddle-splay deformation leads to double-twist director configurations under free-surface boundary conditions, which consist of the result under degenerate planar anchoring conditions. Furthermore, at Rapini-Papoular-type anchoring conditions, saddle-splay deformation has a great influence on the director in the radial direction (r direction) and the director distorts in three-dimensional space. Remarkably, our method provides a more accurate theory basis for the measured values of saddle-splay elastic constant K_24。     

Adaptive Bifunctional Electrocatalyst of Amorphous CoFe Oxide @ 2D Black Phosphorus for Overall Water Splitting

Water electrolysis offers a promising green technology to tackle the global energy and environmental crisis, but its efficiency is greatly limited by the sluggish reaction kinetics of both the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this work, by growing amorphous multi-transition-metal (cobalt and iron) oxide on two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP), we develop a bifunctional electrocatalyst (CoFeO@BP), which is able to efficiently catalyze both HER and OER. The overpotentials for the hybrid CoFeO@BP catalyst to reach a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in 1 m KOH are 88 and 266 mV for HER and OER, respectively. Based on a series of ex-situ and in situ investigations, the excellent catalytic performance of CoFeO@BP is found to result from the adaptive surface structure under reduction and oxidation potentials. CoFeO@BP can be transformed to CoFe phosphide under reduction potential, in situ generating the real active catalyst for HER.